Fast 100: Independent Financial Partners

A heavy investment in technology at Independent Financial Partners is paying dividends as the wealth management firm attracts new financial advisors to its network.

IFP added nearly 100 advisers in 2012, and now has about 500 advisors nationwide, with about $3.4 billion in assets under management in 19,000 accounts. LPL Financial, the nation’s largest independent broker/dealer, provides a platform of brokerage and investment adviser services.

The combination of scale and independence appeals to an increasing number of financial advisers, including those who join IFP’s network.

“Advisors own their own companies and brand themselves,” IFP CEO William Hamm said. “They can provide the intimacy of a small boutique and the services of the largest broker-dealers out there.”

Fees paid by advisers for services provided by IFP, along with a cut from the products advisers sell to clients, provided $43.3 million in revenue last year, a 624 percent increase from 2010.

To maintain its edge with advisers, IFP is implementing a payroll system that provides Web-based access, ensuring proper accounting for fees. The company is finalizing a propriety customer relationship management system that will make it easier to track licensing and registration. On Oct. 1, IFP will go live with a software program that provides surveillance, ensuring clients’ accounts are invested properly.

“If the account objective is a conservative portfolio and you see investments not in those parameters, it red-flags them,” Hamm said.

IFP is also expanding an insurance services group launched in January, as well as third-party money management programs for advisers and their clients. Hamm would also like to increase IFP’s banking involvement, bringing its own platform to smaller community and regional banks that want to offer brokerage services to customers.